Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-07-16

HE SCRAwLED HIS BIG, COARSE SIGNATURE.
pen to Jess, Bessie will take Mooifontein, and
that is worth having. Not that l want more
land; l nave enough. Yes, l will marry her.
1t would serve her right if I didn't;
but, after all, marriage is more respect
able, and also one has more hold of
a wife. Nobody will interfere for her. Then
she will be of use to me by and by, for a
beautiful woman is a power even among
these fellow countrymen Of mine, if only a
man knows how to bait his lines with her.
Yes, l shall marry her. Bah! that is the way
to win q woman-by capture; and, what is
more, they like it. 1t makes her worth win
ming, too. 1t will be n courtship of blood.
Well, the kisses will be tho sweeter, and in
the end she will love mo the more for what /
have dared for her. So, Frank Muller, So!
Ten years ago you said to yourself: There
are three things worth having in the world
first, wealth; second, women, if they take
your fancy, Or, better still, one woman if
you desire her above all others; third,
power Now, you have got the wealth, for
one way and another you are the richest
man in the Transvaal. In a weeks time you
will nave the woman you love. and who is
sweeter to you than all the world besides. In
five years time you will have the power
absolute power. That old man is clever; he
will be president. But l am c~leverer. l
shall soon take his seat, thus"-and he rose
and seated himself in the generals chair
san he will go down a step and take mine.
Ay, and then 1 will reign. Ny tongue shall
be honey and my land iron. I will pass
over the land like a storm. L.-yill drive the
English out with the help Of thcsKatfirs, and
then I will kill the Kaffirs and take their land.
Ah'-and his eyes flashed and his nostrils di-
lated as he said it to himself-"then life will
be worth living! What a thing is power!
What a thing it is to be able to destroy! Take
that Englishman, my rival: today he is well
n strong; in three days he will be gone ut
terly, and II shall ia sent him away.
That is power. But when the time comes
that 1 have only to stretch out my hand
to send thousands after him!-that will he
absolute power; and then with Bessie l shall
be happy
And so he dreamed on for an hour or more,
till at last tho fumes of his untutored imagina-
ton actually drowned his reason in spiritual
intoxication. Picture after picture rose and
unrolled itself before his minds eye. He saw
himself as president addressing the volksraad
and compelling it to his will. He saw him
self, the supreme general Of a great host, de-
AeaCiiS VIC Aoices VI LhsLanu VIII awful
carnage and driving them before him; ay, he
even selected the battle ground on the slopes
of the Biggarsgerg in Natal. Then he saw
himself again sweeping the natives out Of
South Africa with the unrelenting bosom Of
his might and ruling unquestioned over a sub
missive people. And, last of all, he saw some
thing glittering at his feet-it was a crown!
This was the climax of his intoxication.
Then there came an anticlimax. The rich
imagination which had been leading him on
as a gaudy butterfly does a child, suddenly
changed color and dropped to earth; and then
rose up in bis mind the memory Of the gen.
erals words: "God sets q limit to a mans
doings. II he is going too far God kills him."
The butterfly had settled on a coffin!